Intel (INTC, Financial) has announced a delay in the mass production of its Panther Lake (PTL) chips, now set for mid-fourth quarter 2025 instead of early September 2025. This postponement means that PTL notebooks might not become widespread until 2026, potentially causing Intel to miss the lucrative end-of-year sales season in 2025. Consequently, Intel's revenue and profits for the second half of 2025 could face significant downward pressure.
Although Intel publicly stated that PTL would be produced in the second half of 2025, this delay still aligns with their public timeline. However, such a decision likely stems from serious production issues, which could negatively impact Intel's revenue, profit, organizational morale, and supply chain trust.
Industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo's investigation into Intel's advanced process materials shipments for the third quarter of 2025 shows no significant changes, further supporting the possibility of a PTL delay. During the second half of 2025, Intel will rely heavily on its Arrow Lake (ARL) chips to compete with AMD and Qualcomm. With ARL offering less than 40 TOPS and limited brand interest in promoting Lunar Lake (LNL), Intel may find itself at a disadvantage in the AI PC market.
Some proactive brands plan to use PTL qualification samples (QS), expected for limited production by the end of September, in select high-end models to gain an early market presence. However, the limited availability of QS samples means this strategy offers little benefit to Intel. Until Intel successfully ships chips produced with its 18A process, gaining trust from external IC design clients and securing significant collaboration on 18A chip development will be challenging.
